A quick scan of Rotten Tomatoes for Ladder 49 review gives you the few key words you need to know: “safe”, “earnest”, “flat”, “boilerplate”, “predictable”, and so on. Good enough to be entertaining for a couple of hours, not good enough to make me ever think of it again.

Things like this have been written on walls around where I live. I’m thinking of taking a walk tomorrow down all the side streets around here to see if I can find more…

We went to see Friday Night Lights (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night. When I first saw the ads I simply thought we were going to have another Another Given Sunday or Varsity Blues on our hands, but manoman…was I wrong. It was a football movie — not a high school movie — but it was a football movie that managed not to be enthralled with football, simply enthralled with the lives and the pressures of the kids who play it.

And what made it that much better — to me, anyway — was the soundtrack, compiled almost entirely of music from Explosions In The Sky. Mostly it added the same nuance that Billy Bob Thornton did, but by times was nearly as ferocious as the performance by Tim McGraw(!).

Without a doubt, one of the best sports movies I’ve ever seen. Nearly up there with Hoosiers (imdb | rotten tomatoes).

We walked down to the construction site today, to see our beloved hole in the ground. A fine hole it is too.

And may I just say that even walking past the Eaton Centre is getting annoying?

JibJab is at it again.

Had drinks with a friend from university last night. The Rebel House is quickly becoming our most frequented neighbourhood pub. Maybe it’s the beer selection, maybe it’s the Muskoka short ribs. I’m taking another friend there in a week or two. His last two trips here I took him to C’est What and Smokeless Joe’s, so the RH seems like the next logical place.

From the CBC: ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ sets record for docs on DVD. Broke the record in the first day of sales.

Today, on my way to a vendor’s offices, my cabbie nearly killed us. And several other people. A few times. His driving was so erratic that I actually felt ill when we pulled up. I couldn’t get out of the cab fast enough.

I’m trying to figure out who I like less today: Lorna Dueck for being an intolerant homophobe (and hiding behind “God” to seem like less shitty a person) or Dick Cheney for being Keyser Soze.

Actually, after clicking through on that Globe And Mail link above, I’m inclined to add Phillip Crawley to that list as well. I already pay for the paper copy of the Globe (which the site knows, as I log in and it recognizes me as a subscriber). And yet, they want me to pay again to read the same story that I already paid for in the paper copy. I can understand charging additional fees to access additional content, but this is just a cash grab unbecoming of the best newspaper in Canada. Sad.

Last night I watched Denys Arcand’s Oscar-winning followup to Decline Of The American Empire, The Barbarian Invasions (rotten tomatoes | imdb). What a film. At once a critique of the Canadian (and, specifically, Quebecois) health care system, an examination of American reaction to 9/11, a plea for the right to end one’s own life, and a question of our own ability to evade the fate toward which our parents steer us. On top of all this it’s funny, sarcastic, sardonic, smart, and touching.

Even if you haven’t seen Decline, you should watch Barbarian Invasions. Actually, screw it. Watch both. Doesn’t matter which order.